Virginia’s uranium mining study has gotten the green light — but with conditions — from the National Research Council’s Governing Board Executive Committee.
Before the study can be fully approved, several issues must be addressed, wrote Anthony R. de Souza, director of the Board of Earth Sciences and Resources for the National Academies, in a letter to Michael E. Karmis, director of the Virginia Center for Coal and Energy Research at Virginia Tech.
“These issues … relate to the funding source for the study, the requirement for independence of the NRC in carrying out the study, full transparency regarding funding, and a minor revision of the proposed statement of task,” de Souza wrote in the Nov. 23 letter.
“The proposed study is still contingent upon clarification of these issues,” said Jennifer Walsh, spokeswoman for the National Academy of Sciences. The NRC is part of the National Academy of Sciences.
Attempts to reach Karmis were unsuccessful Thursday.
The committee will meet Monday, Walsh said. However, the issues could be worked out before that meeting, she said.
“It’s still a work-in-progress,” Walsh said.
Virginia Uranium Inc. seeks to mine and mill a 119-million pound uranium ore deposit at Coles Hill, about six miles northeast of Chatham. The NAS study would not be site-specific, but would address uranium mining and milling issues throughout Virginia, which has had a mining moratorium since 1982.
Patrick Wales, geologist and spokesman for VUI, said he was pleased with the tentative approval.
“We’re gratified to have the nation’s preeminent scientists to study this important issue,” Wales said Thursday.
Wales called the decision is an important step and said VUI has always supported an independent evaluation of the resource.
“I look forward to seeing the results,” Wales said, adding that the minor revision in the statement of task the committee has called for has been done.
Jack Dunavant, chairman of Southside Concerned Citizens, said whether the study turns out to be objective after it’s over remains to be seen.
“As long as they do it objectively, I say full steam ahead,” Dunavant said Thursday.
David Bovenizer, spokesman for Delegate Lee Ware, who heads the Virginia Coal and Energy Commission’s Uranium Mining Subcommittee, said he was pleased with the committee’s decision.
“The letter conveys good news in the sense that the scope of the study is approved depending now only on resolution of a few technical contractual matters to ensure independency and transparency of the funding,” Bovenizer said via e-mail Thursday.
Virginia Uranium Inc., through Virginia Tech’s Center for Coal and Energy Research, would pay for the study’s first phase focusing on the technical and public-safety aspects of mining. That first study would cost as much as $1.4 million. Virginia Tech’s Virginia Center for Coal and Energy Research would handle the money and contract with the NAS for the study.
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